High Noon March 28, 2015

Neo Tokyo-3, Japan

          On a normal day in Tokyo-3, it would be sunny and hardly a cloud in the sky with a cool breeze, this wasn't the case today. It was dark and raining, as the very sky rumbled with thunder and flashes of lighting. No one noticed it though, most of the citizens where in emergency shelters, because of some sort of threat. No one knew except NERV personal that where on duty that day. An enormous monster towering roughly about half a mile was standing in the middle of the dark city, seemingly waiting for something or someone.

          Shinji was not feeling so great after having about five times his proper weight slammed against his spine when he was sky rocketed up the launch shaft and onto the wet streets of Tokyo-3. As the Eva's head cleared the street, he saw something that nearly made him pee in his pants. That thing that Ritsuko called an Angel, was staring right at him. "Ah shit!" Shinji said as he instinctively tried to duck and roll out of the path of the Angel. But something was holding him back, "What the hell Misato, I can't move." Shinji said barely keeping his voice steady.

          Misato turned to Maya, "Why isn't the Elevator not releasing him?" she asked her, she kept cool and calm.

          "It's malfunctioning at section 89, the hydrolic locks have too much pressure its not releasing." Maya said panicking.

          "Ah shit." Misato said starting to get worried.

          Suddenly the Angel charged, straight at Unit 01. Fuck, was the only word that went through his mind as he was slammed hard in the gut. Shinji let out a grunt; he felt like shit, he really wanted to throw up. His shoulders where aching and he felt like all the air was knocked out of him, he looked around in a fuzzy gaze.

          Evangelion Unit 01 slowly picked itself up, recovering slower than the attacker, which was a big mistake when it was once again rammed and slammed the Evangelion back onto a mountain. Eva unit 01 used the mountain as support as it leaned up against it to get back up.

          "You Bastard," yelled Shinji in pure fury, "that hurts like hell."

          As if to retort, the Angel slowly lifted its hand against the charging Evangelion unit and shot out a beam of pure energy.

          Shinji let out a pained yell. He tried to dodge the beam but the damned thing hit him in the shoulder.

          "The beam went right through his shoulder." Announced Maya, "and the nerve connections on the left shoulder are starting to break up."

          "Where in the hell are his defense systems?" Ritsuko asked, "Why are they not working."

          "They are not up." Maya responded.
          "It's not up?!" Ritsuko asked startled.

          Shinji was pissed off, very pissed off. He had never felt anything like it; intense rage was the only thing that came close. "I'm going to kill you," he said in a low growl, "if it's the last thing I do."

          "This can't be right!" Maya said astonished, while staring at her computer screen, "How can his Sync ratio be at 80%?"

          "What did you say?!" Misato asked, feeling completely helpless at the moment.

          Evangelion Unit 01, the all absolute black monster, moved with grace and speed. It dodged beams coming from the Angels hands, and landed a thundering punch into the gut of the Angel. It doubled over in pain. The Eva, not giving the Angel a second to recover, continued its relentless attack. Knees, punches, tackles, and kicks, all hitting the Angel in a fury of anger and adrenaline.

          The Command Center was deathly quiet, the only sounds where gasps and grunts. They all stared at the immense holographic screen, in complete awe at the sheer power of the E-project when put in the hands of a very mad pilot. The cold voice of the pilot rang out in the Command Center causing most to wince.

          "Misato, I need a weapon that will kill this thing." Shinji said. He was sitting in the cockpit, or the entry plug as the techs called it. Blood was freely coming from his mouth and nose. He was aching in half-a-dozen places. His ribs felt cracked, but he ignored the pain, his life was on the line. He could not afford anymore mistakes.

          Ritsuko watched the pilot on the small communications monitor from her station. The pilot was clearly in pain. Hopefully he will make it, she thought, we don't have another, just yet.

          "Shinji, I am sending up a rifle… now, it's on your left." Misato said.

          "Sorry Misato, or whatever your name is," Shinji said.  "Listen, I think I can kill this thing. Guns and stuff are useless. I saw those attacks."

          Misato though for a moment, it was true that conventional weapons did not work on this Angel. Even that large warhead didn't do much damage. "Ritsuko, is the progressive knife equipted on Evangelion Unit 01?" she asked.

          "Yes, the Techs decided to install it on the left shoulder compartment, for an offensive purpose." Ritsuko said as she pulled up the schematics of the Evangelion unit on her computer screen.

          "Shinji, I need you to activate your left shoulder compartment." Misato said to the Holographic video of Shinji in the Plug. "The button should be on your left side. Then pull out the Progressive Knife. It will activate after five seconds of pressure on the handle."

          Shinji looked back into the face of Misato Katsuragi. Such a beautiful face, he would gladly die for her.  "It will die on this battle field." Shinji said malice in his voice.

          Shinji quickly searched for some sort of keys on his left side. He needed to use every precious second he had, if he made one mistake it could prove to be fatal.

          Seeing a strange assortment of keys on the left wall he tried to touch the visual representation of the keys. He tried to touch the left shoulder compartment activation key. Suddenly a holographic hand appeared on the wall. Apperantly the whole wall was a screen, moving the hand with his own gloved hand he hit the activation key. "L. Shoulder weapon activated"

          Evangelion Unit 01's left shoulder opened up, a holster popped out. It grabbed the object, which revealed to be an enormous knife. The shoulder reverted into itself and looked the same as it did before. Seemingly sensing the danger the Angel attacked, the Evangelion once again slammed into the mountain. Then the Angel exploded, it fell on top of the knife, the knife pieced its core.

          "What is the status of the pilot and the Evangelion?" Misato asked, dreading the answer.

          "The Evangelion Unit 01 is suffering from sever armor damage, the explosion melted it right through to the 4th layer. The Eva is currently at 67% combat ready. It took quite a beating." One of the com officers reported.

          "The Pilot is barely conscious, possible head trama, unknown physical damage." Ritsuko stated.

          "Shinji," Misato said to the open link to Unit 01, "Shinji, can you hear me?"

          "Yeah," Shinji said. One of his eyes was half closed, his voice sounded forced, like he couldn't talk without tremendous effort. The L.C.L. around him was a strange red tint.

          "I can give you instructions to move the Eva to one of the waypoints; there we will get you back to base." Misato said softly.

          "Alright." Shinji said.

          The Evangelion made it slowly back to base, you could see much of the damage, also the flesh underneath the armor.

          "Ejecting the Entry Plug."

          Shinji slowly climbed out of the now open plug, pain withered his body. There was deep bruising all over his body.

          Misato came running up, "Good job Shinji, how do you feel?"

          "Like shit." Shinji simply said, he coughed up blood and then collapsed.

          Misato watched as Shinji hit the metal grate like a sack of bricks. "Oh shit," Misato said as she bent down, "MEDIC!"

          Two men came running down to Misato and Shinji. One of them came with a stretcher and the other came and started checking his vitals. "He has deep lacerations on his right leg, and he's got bruises all over his body." He said as he tried to stop the bleeding.  Suddenly Shinji started to jerk and cough. "He's going into shock; we need a medi-vac, NOW!"

          Misato watched helplessly as they moved Shinji from the cages. "You better stay alive Shinji… we all owe you our lives now."

          In a pitch black room, where the only visible light came from small floor panels, two men where standing in the middle of one of the lighted floor panels. The ozone in the room created a strange sort of fog appearance as it refracted the lighting.

          "This is a dangerous game you're playing Gendou." Sub-Commander Fuyutsuki said.

          Fuyutsuki shifted into a more comfortable position to study any reaction from Gendou Ikari. Nothing. So he continued, "How long do you think you can continue to manipulate Shinji and Misato."

Still nothing. "How many are you will to sacrifice to win this?" Fuyutsuki continued to ask.

          "All of them, if need be." Commander Ikari said still looking at a painting on the left wall. It was of an angel with eight wings descending into the stars.

          "Even your own son, your own flesh and blood are you willing to sacrifice him as well?" Fuyutsuki asked fearing the answer.

          "Yes." Was the simple answer from Ikari, but the word seemed to roll around them and echo off the wall and into the dead of night in the Geo-Front.

          With a loud groan, Shinji Ikari slowly started to come to. He could tell that he was in a very sterile environment, it smelled of harsh cleaners. It hurt as he took in another breath. He slowly opened his eyes and that hurt too.

          A nurse who was on duty checked in on Room 407, Ikari, Shinji. She saw movement and went inside to investigate. "Ah, I see that you're finally awake." She said as she saw Shinji open his eyes. She then started to check his vitals, and jot down a few notes, "The doctor and your friend Ms. Katsuragi will be in a few moments." Then she left.

          An eternity later, accually fifteen minutes, the doctor, an older man with graying hair, came in. "So Shinji how are you feeling?"

          "Like hammered Shit." Shinji said bluntly.

          The answer awarded Shinji with a small smile from the doctor.

          "Yes, well, you seem to be healing nicely, and let me give you a quick look over and I think you can leave the hospital." The doctor said.

          The doctor didn't take very long in looking him over, just a quick check on reflexes and normal body functions then he left. Misato Katsuragi showed up only a minute after the man left.

          "Hey." Misato said as she leaned on the door looking in on Shinji.

          "Hey." Shinji said managing a smile, which hurt.

          "Can I come in?" asked Misato.

          "Yeah sure, make yourself at home." Shinji said.

          "So…" Misato started not quite sure how to procede.

          "You know Misato… If I'm going to start piloting the Evangelion I think I need to get some combat training." Shinji said casually.

          Misato stared at him at first, but then cracked a smile, he had let her off the hook of asking him if he would pilot again. She was pretty sure the he wouldn't after being beaten half to death.

          "So do you think you can sign me out, and we can get out of here?" Shinji asked as he started to get up.

          "And what makes you think you can just leave?" Misato asked freigning seriousness as she crossed her arms over her chest.

          "Simple after the Doc finished poking and prodding he seemed pretty happy with the results." Shinji said.

          Misato chuckled a bit, true the doctor had said he was in good condition and he would be 100% in a matter of days.

          "Alright, your right, he said you where good now." Misato said smiling, "Let's get going we need you to get situated and need to do tons of paperwork. You are now joining a top secret organization that protects the world."

          "I swear if there is an examination…" Shinji said

          As the two walked out of the hospital they drive back to NERV headquarters most of the way in silence.

          "You know I think I did that bad for my first day on the job." Shinji said grinning.

          Finally after signing what seemed like an endless flow of paperwork Shinji and Misato where finally finished.

          "Lets go, we need to get you assigned a place to live. We can't have NERV's most talented pilot living on the streets now can we?"  Misato said.

          Shinji laughed, "You flatter me. Alright let's go."

          They ended up in the most extraordinary room Shinji had ever seen.  Shinji could tell that the ceiling was not a normal one, but made entirely of glass, a crystal clear lake sat on top of the glass. You could just see the buildings through the lake and glass. The glossy floor reflected what you could see above. Sometimes it would ripple as the water above shifted, and this combined with the company of Misato Katsuragi, Shinji believed this was the most beautiful place on earth.

          Suddenly the floor started to shift, and it went flying across the Geo-Front, "This is where you will be living," the man said as the floor showed a nice apartment building, "it's on the third block just beyond this one, one bed, one bath, one den, roughly fifteen hundred feet. Is this exeptable?"

          Not so bad for saving the world, I kind of like it, Shinji thought. "Sure this is a great place."

          "What?" Misato exclaimed, "He's going to be living alone?"

          "Yes that is correct," the man said after glancing at his clipboard, "Unless you have a better offer…"

          Shinji had a smug look on his face as he sat down on a bench while Misato Katsuragi made a phone call to the beautiful Doctor Ritsuko Akagi. Shinji could just make out the conversation as Misato's voice started to rise.

          "Yes, that's right," Misato said into the phone, "He's going to be living with me, and I'm going to be his guardian." Misato then added, "Oh, and don't worry, I'm not going to be making any passes at him." She then winked at the phone.

          The other end exploded, even Shinji heard what Dr. Akagi said, "Of course your not, how can you even think about something like that. He is only fourteen years old."

          Shinji was laughing at the expression of pure horror on Misato's face as she held the phone receiver about a foot from her face.

          Shinji then grab the phone and put it too his ear, "Yeah, Ritsuko, as entertaining as you two can be I'm really hungry, so… Good Bye." He said and hung up the phone.

          "Come on Misato, I'm STARVING!" Shinji said as his stomach made an audible agreement. "I swear the hospital food is crap, for the money they get paid you would think you could have a steak everyday."

          Misato laughed as she jogged to catch up with Shinji, "Yeah, actually I had an idea… how about we have a small party, just the two of us." She said.

          "You know…" Shinji said casually as he put on his I'm-really-attracted-to-you smile, "If it's just the two of us, it could be called a date instead of a party."

          Misato suddenly frowned, "Now Shinji…"

          Shinji cracked a grin, "I know I'm just messing with you. Now let's go get some food."

          While at the store Shinji and Misato over heard a conversation about the previous battle, "Do you know what happened during the evacuation to the shelters?" One woman asked.

          "Yeah, I heard it was a huge monster that attacked the city." Another said.

          "Would explain the damage done to the mountain and the city." said the first woman as she paid for her things.

          "Who cares about a mountain, as long as no one died." The other said.    

          "True, want to hear something really crazy, a friend of mine said a giant robot defended our city." said the lady as she waited for her friend.

          "No way, that is crazy..." said the other one as the left the store.

          Shinji smiled as they left, those words alone made it worth suffering the pain of saving the city from the monster. Shinji soon found himself staring at the sunset as Misato waited to pay for all the food they got.

          "Trying to get a handle on the moment?" Misato asked.

          "Yeah, it just all started to hit me." Shinji said.

          "Come on hero, I want to show you something on the way to my place." Misato said.

          "Ok, I think I can last a few minutes." Shinji said.

          The car stops near a ledge overlooking Tokyo-3. Shinji and Misato walk the rest of the way until they reach a railing.

          "You know…" Shinji said as he watched the sky in the brilliant colors of red and orange, "I spent most of my life, trying to rid myself of my father, and now I find myself working under him, irony has a strange sense of humor."

          "I always thought so…" Misato said, "It should start now."

          Shinji was about to say, "What's starting," but never got to. A loud siren came from the city and suddenly the buildings starting to come up from the ground. Large bolts locked into place once the buildings reached their full height.

          "Well I'll be damned, so that's why the city looked so barren. It was all underground." Shinji said with a hint of awe at the site of the metropolitan that was Tokyo-3.

          "Yup, this is the city that you saved; nearly 4 million people owe their lives to you." Misato said.

They drove back to Misato's apartment, as they walked up to the door Shinji spotted his stuff on the floor in boxes, all fifteen of them.

          "A lot of stuff you got there." Misato said as she opened her door.

          "Yeah…" Shinji said as he bent down and got an envelope that held a note:

          Dear Mr. Ikari:

                   We are sorry that we missed you today, your motorcycle is currently at our storage office in Tokyo-3, and you can come by anytime between 8-8pm.

          "Oh great my bikes somewhere in storage," Shinji said annoyed, "Hey, Misato would you know where this place is?"

          Shinji showed Misato the note, "Um… yeah, it's about a few blocks from here, we can pick it up tomorrow."

          "Ok good, I kind of miss my bike." Shinji said.

          "I understand completely, um… by the way, my place might be a little messy…" Misato said as she walked on in.

         As Shinji stepped in he almost gasped. He took off his shoes and entered the living room, peach colored carpet, tan leather furniture. Big screen T.V. and nice entertainment system, he could see only a few beer cans and some left over chips, some scattered magazines but that was it. She called this messy? Shinji though, he had seen so much worse.

          "This is a little messy?" Shinji voiced his thoughts.

          "Uh, yeah, hey Shinji, could you put the stuff the fridge, I really need to change." Misato said as she started to take off her NERV jacket.

          "Yeah sure, I'll do it." Shinji said as he went into the kitchen.        

          All the apliences where sleek black and went well with the granite countertops. Everything was where it was supposed to be… two refridgerators? What in the hell… Shinji decided to go for the right one, just something told him to go for the right one, so he opened the right one and placed the food and drinks in the fridge. He then opened the next door and found… lots and lots of beer.

          "Jackpot…" Shinji said as he stared at the gold mine, I'm sure she's not going to miss one or two every so often, Shinji thought. He closed the door again, he wasn't going to be so stupid as to take one when she was sober, that would just be dumb.

          Misato came out of her room in a wife beater and some jean shorts, Shinji realized that he was going to have to be really tired tonight to not dream about Misato Katsuragi.

          Everything was finally ready to chow down. Food was out on the table and Misato was putting out the drinks, soda for Shinji and a beer for herself, "Here's to you Shinji for saving the city." Misato said.

          Shinji smiled, "And here's to you for saving my ass a few times out there." They toasted each other and drank the night away; it was the start of a friendship that would last all.

          "This will be you room…" Misato said as she gave him an after-party tour.

          "Perfect… large, roomy," Shinji said, "thank you for the hospitality."

          "It's my pleasure." Misato said.

          "You don't mind if I get first dibs at a bath?" Shinji asked.

          "Sure, go ahead, I need to do some paperwork." Misato answered.

          "Alright, thanks a lot." Shinji said as he walked into the bathroom.

          Shinji sank into the tub, the hot water slowly undone the muscles in his body, "Misato Katsuragi, she's not so bad." Shinji said as he reflected on what happened over the past two days. "What a cramped little man I've become." Shinji said, it would never happen again, he promised himself. He will live life to its fullest, even if he had to pilot a giant robot against huge monsters.

          "So how is he?" Ritsuko asked as she sat at her desk at NERV drinking a cup of coffee, her friend Misato had just called a minute earlier.

          "He…" Misato asked herself aloud, "Oh, you mean Shinji, he's nice. Hit on me at least ten times since I took him under my custody."

          "Well you are the one that wanted him." Ritsuko said in a teasing voice.

          "Oh shut up!" Misato yelled into the phone and hung up.

          Ritsuko winced and rubbed her ear and hung up the phone as well.

          Misato sat in the tub as she worked out the frustrations of the day.

          She was not taking care of a kid, who would have ever thought of her as a parent, life was strange like that.

          Shinji sat down on his bed and laid down, he had just finished unpacking his stuff. His computer was on the desk that the room had, he set up his stereo. It was his room now, he felt more at home. He missed his old home but it was ok. He would have to train tomorrow, physical training and learn more about the Evangelions. The technology was amazing; NERV never seemed to lack the latest gadget to save the world. And he piloted its most powerful weapon. He felt honored and scared at the same time. Tomorrow would be the beginning of his new life.